Sampling Modern R&B

Ne-Yo's "Miss Independent" is a good song, maybe a great one, as it grows on me. If I could, I would include it in m Top 10 singles of 2008 on some of the polls I vote for. But the moment I heard it, I thought to myself: "I wonder who he's sampling?"

Could this be the problem with how we think of today's R&B singers? You hear a song a wonder, like you do with rap artists, where they got that beat from. That John Legend song, isn't that a sample? Beyonce? All I had to was google "Miss Independent" and a youtube link to the original song came up. It turns out Ne-Yo took the music from a woman named Lil Bit and added his own lyrics. Yes, Ne-Yo's version is better, and it appears that Lil Bit's song just got lost in the shuffle.

Still, I wonder. It's the skeptic in me. Modern R&B chart toppers have had me wondering for years who they are getting their beats from.